Simplest Shawl in Garter Stitch 

This is the basic pattern:
Cast on three stitches any way you want :-)
Row One - K1, YO, knit to end of row. Turn.
Row Two and all subsequent rows - Repeat Row One :-)
Continue until you run out of your chosen yarn OR the shawl is the size YOU want. 
Bind off loosely. To bind off REALLY loosely, use a crochet hook and chain one in between every passed stitch. 

TIPS for the basic pattern:
With one ball of yarn you can make a shawl for a Teddy or Barbie, with a whole cone of yarn you can make a shawl to wrap yourself in on the couch on a cold winter day.

And what, you ask, does YO mean? Yarn over - the act of creating a stitch by wrapping the yarn around the needle, before making the next stitch. See a diagram here. The yarn over is your increase.

This will make a garter stitch (every row knitted) shawl with a row of eyelets along both sides where you increase at the beginning of each row. The advantage to a garter stitch shawl is that it will not curl on the edges.

Simplest Shawl in Stockinette Stitch (StSt) 

Cast on three stitches 

Row One K1, YO, knit to end of row. Turn 

Repeat Row One until you have a total of ten stitches on the needle. Now, you will be dividing your work into three sections - two borders of five stitches each in garter stitch and a center section in stockinette. 

Next row K5, place marker, YO, place marker, knit 5. Turn 

Purl Rows K5, slip marker, YO, purl center stitches (one on this particular row), slip marker, K5. Turn 

Knit Rows K5, slip marker, YO knit center stitches, slip marker, K5 

Continue previous two rows until you reach the desired size. You may wish to finish with a band of five rows of garter stitch so the top will match the sides. Bind off loosely. Now, in the purple shawl example above, it looks like I started with more that three stitches - so I didn't get the nice pointy tail I like now. And it also looks like I got to more like thirteen before I remembered to divide - five on each side and three in the middle. Oh well, hopefully you get that idea that these are just SUGGESTIONS and you may invent anything you like :-) 

Copyright 2003 erica raspberry
For personal use only. 
May not be distributed with the purchase of any product.